Lyons: Deputy seems to lack good judgment

Deputy Dan Fornal was just blowing off steam, maybe. But did the situation even call for it?

Tom Lyons

Cops and their missteps need to be judged fairly and calmly, just like everyone else.

But in the case of Deputy Dominic Fornal, who has been making arrests for the Sarasota County Sheriff's Office since 2009, it feels odd talking about the importance of being reasonable and restrained and avoiding premature harsh judgments.

That's because Fornal doesn't seem to get the concept.

That's based not on my own observations but those of his fellow cops who have seen him at work, and cringed about his needlessly edgy interactions with the public.

A supervisor wrote that Fornal “escalates possible confrontational and hostile situations instead of using sound judgment and professionalism to de-escalate the situation.” That assessment was based on reports from other deputies.

That, and maybe some discrepancies between his over-stated description of DUI suspects' behavior and what was shown on video, resulted in Fornal's transfer from the DUI unit and back to road patrol. Sheriff Tom Knight said the intent was making sure Fornal had more supervision.

Knight used unusually strong words at the time.

“This individual has affected our entire organization," Knight said. “If he doesn't adhere to the values we have here, we'll move him on.”

That statement followed an incident in which Fornal insisted he had probable cause to search a car and bring in a drug sniffing dog, and then a second one when the first struck out. The reason: Fornal insisted he had smelled unburnt marijuana while driving behind the car, though both had their windows up.

Maybe Fornal's nose, or his imagination, led him to believe he smelled a freshly harvested bale of weed. But there wasn't one. The search team did eventually report finding one “roach' — a partially smoked marijuana cigarette — in the trunk. If Fornal smelled that from his own car, he has the world's most sensitive schnozz.

But as you may know, that deputy's latest controversy does not involve his nose. Just his mouth.

While talking to a Florida Highway Patrol trooper at an accident scene where a DUI arrest was made, Fornal made it clear how he felt about a passenger who was clearly overly upset.

Fornal's cop-to-cop assessment of that passenger, recorded as part of the evidence gathered at the scene, included calling him “a dumb f---ing retard” and saying “I wish he would have got hit by a f---ing car on University. That would have been kind of funny.”

Not all who read about that were aghast, or even critical. One commenter, for instance, said it was just a private cop-to-cop conversation and that Fornal's words shouldn't be taken literally.

“Do you think this Deputy REALLY wished that this person would get hit by a car...NO...its called BLOWING OFF STEAM,” she wrote.

Probably so. Good point.

But the problem is how much steam Fornal seems to have, and that he blows it off while on duty.

Knight can't comment about the ongoing internal affairs investigation triggered by Fornal's taped words. But he still talked.

“I can tell you as a sheriff and somebody who saw a video, I think the video speaks for itself,” Knight said.

“To say I'm disappointed is an understatement,” Knight said. “I'm embarrassed for the almost one thousand people who work here.”

Puzzled, too, Knight said, because he saw nothing that would even come close to inspiring the severe vehemence of Fornal's words.

“What would drive a person to think that way and to say those things?”